Players say Crosby is No. 1

[islandgirl]

Players say Crosby is No. 1
CanWest News Service
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The players have spoken, and Sid the Kid is now firmly entrenched as Sid the Man.

The Sporting News' end-of-season awards are in and the Pittsburgh Penguins' young superstar, Sidney Crosby, has claimed player of the year honours after leading all NHL scorers with 36 goals and 84 assists for 120 points in 79 games.

The awards were determined by votes gathered from NHL players. The voting was conducted before the playoffs.

Crosby, who doesn't turn 20 until Aug. 7, ran away with the player of the year distinction. He received 110 of the 210 votes from his fellow players. Tampa Bay Lightning centre Vincent Lecavalier was a distant second. Crosby also won a spot as centre on the Sporting News all-star team, with Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis on one wing and Ottawa Senators sniper Dany Heatley on the other.

Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings and Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Ducks anchored the defence while Martin Brodeur was named all-star goaltender.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007

[P562045]

The player's got it right. Now I wonder what the people that actually voted for the various awards think. Does when the NHL awards show happens depend on how long the finals go on or is their a specific date for the awards show?

I think that all three finalists for the Hart [MVP] are deserving but I would have to give Sidney the nod. There are several reasons for this. Pittsburgh is a very young hockey team and the Devils and Vancouver have many more established players in the NHL. I believe there was three games that Sidney did not play because of injury this past season. The Penguins are a totally different hockey team when Sidney is playing and not playing. That would seem obvious but the other players feed off Sidney so much that when he is not playing the other players seem to be lost without him being on the ice. I think that the Devils would play the same style hockey no matter who is in the goal. I don't know nearly as much about Vancouver as the other two teams partly because they play on the west coast and I would normally be in bed by the time the third period started.

And of course I can be somewhat biased whenever I talk about Sidney.